


Firebreathing

by killingmonsterswritingthings



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, pair skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-29
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-27 18:36:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8412133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/killingmonsterswritingthings/pseuds/killingmonsterswritingthings
Summary: Yuri does late-night skating to avoid the audience - the only audience he doesn't mind is Viktor. But Viktor isn't satisfied with just watching, and proposes a little skating experiment.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote the first 1.2k of this while i was at my gf's place because they asked me very nicely :P  
> the title stemmed from a conversation we had and then i just kept it because i liked it a lot...
> 
> it's been like 10 years since i quit figure skating so forgive me if there's any mistakes (especially since i only know all the terms in german :') can you believe we pronounce toe loop "tulup"???)

 

It was late – too late for Yuri to still be at the Ice Palace, but Yuko had always liked him and had given him a key a week ago already. She knew he liked skating at night, when it was just him and the ice and the darkness outside.

He had not put on all of the overhead lights – the ice reflected enough of them for him to practice. He had not put on any music, either – his only soundtrack were the scratch of his skates on the ice and his labored breath.

He was going through the Eros performance again, even though that particular competition was over and done with. Somehow he had become obsessed with it. He could land the quadruple Salchow by now, but he had also landed it in practice long before he had started working with Viktor. Until he could reliably make it in practice every time, he wouldn’t be able to take it into a real competition – but even then he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stand it there. His nerves were too weak, too fragile. He hated it. He knew what he could do, but under the heat of so many eyes his confidence betrayed him each and every time.

That was how he noticed the eyes that were following him now, too.

He had always been hyper-aware of the looks of others.

Viktor’s gaze felt different. It was still hot, but Yuri felt less uncertain beneath it. Instead he felt motivation – strength that was welling up in him and being poured into his skating.

He came out of the pirouette and finished the routine, only catching a glimpse of Viktor’s face before he turned to skate over to the boards from the middle of the rink. Once he got closer he could see how soft Viktor’s eyes were. Filled with pride and something pensive.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, pillowing his arms on the edge of the boards.

Viktor raised an eyebrow. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Couldn’t sleep,” Yuri shrugged, “so I decided training was the next best thing.”

“You need your sleep,” Viktor said and made a tutting sound.

Yuri sighed. “I can’t force myself to sleep.”

“You could take a sleeping pill.”

Yuri scoffed and scrunched up his nose. “No, thanks. I’m an athlete.” He preferred keeping his body as drug free as he could, ever since the painkillers back when he had fucked up his knee in juniors and hadn’t been able to skate for months.

Viktor laughed. “I promise one sleeping pill won’t show up on a drug test.”

“That’s not it,” Yuki said and shook his head. “I just don’t like it. There’s a reason I can’t sleep and I guess I prefer to deal with it head-on.”

“Hmm,” Viktor made and Yuri had no idea what that meant. Then Viktor moved towards the door that led to the ice and opened it.

“You’re wearing skates,” Yuri said, stupidly, unnecessarily.

Viktor stepped onto the ice and pushed the door closed behind him. “I’m your coach,” he said. “I can skate with you if I want to.”

“What if I don’t want you to?”

Viktor’s face fell.

“I didn’t mean I don’t want you to right now!” Yuri hastily backtracked. _Not ever._ It was anxiety inducing, but also exhilarating – sharing the ice with Viktor. Yuri would never say no to that, no matter how scared he was. “I just… you must be tired.”

Viktor started a lap around the rink and Yuri followed him instinctively.

“I don’t require a lot of rest,” he said. “And it’s not that late in Russia yet.”

“You’ve been here for two weeks,” Yuri said. Surely the jetlag would have left Viktor by now.

Viktor turned, now skating backwards and laughed again. “It was a joke.” He stretched out a hand.

“Oh,” Yuri made. He took Viktor’s hand. What else would he do? Was he ever supposed to do?

They completed the lap like that and then Viktor spun them around, Yuri gliding around him in a wide arc, the force of the motion pulling at his back and pushing his hair out of his face. Now he was the one skating backwards.

He wondered what kind of exercise this was supposed to be.

“You’re so focused on other people,” Viktor said, now also reaching out with his other hand. “Sometimes it falls away when you’re skating, but the way you jump your Salchow tells me it never really goes away.”

Yuri could feel his face flushing. He hadn’t thought he was this easy to read.

He took Viktor’s hand anyway. He didn’t say anything.

“You’d make a good pair skater, if you weren’t so small,” Viktor mused.

Yuri almost tripped. Almost. Two decades of experience in the rink prevented him from that particular embarrassment – he had always been more graceful on the ice than off it.

But he had never had the guts for pair skating, even back when it had been an option.

“I tried with Yuko a few times, back when she was still competing,” he said. His ears were growing hot now, too, and he was sure that his blush must have been clearly visible, although Viktor might assume it was because of the cold radiating off the ice.

It had mostly been joking around, after or before practice, when the coaches weren’t looking and they could just be young, instead of rising star athletes. Yuri had never wanted to compete in pair skating.

Viktor let go of one his hands and Yuri instinctively knew what he had to do. He slowed a little and spun around again so they were facing in the same direction now, skating side by side.

“I could probably throw you,” Viktor said, thoughtful.

Yuri _squeaked_ and then sucked in a quick breath.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Viktor hummed a little. “Why not?”

“Synchronized skating is hard enough,” Yuri said and his voice sounded much too high to his own ears. “Throwing involves too much… trust.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

Yuri sighed and bit his lip. “I _do_ ,” he said. _I don’t trust myself._

Viktor regarded him for a moment, then nodded. “Alright,” he said, “I guess we’re going to start with synchronized footwork and spins.”

That sounded better. Yuri smiled.

  


It worked better than Yuri had expected.

They even managed a butterfly jump that seemed perfectly synchronized – although Yuri of course couldn’t tell for sure, being a participant in the routine, with no one there to watch.

Coming out of a spin combination and breathing hard, Yuri came to a stop. He couldn’t help the giddy grin that had taken over his face.

Viktor was breathing even faster than him, a strand of hair clinging to his face. Yuri remembered what he had said about his stamina and involuntarily flushed a little at the memory. He reached up and brushed the hair from Viktor’s forehead before he could think better of it.

Viktor caught Yuri’s hand in his.

“Will you at least let me lift you?” he asked.

Yuri swallowed, his eyes darting to the left, but he nodded. “Yes.” He would allow it – he would allow himself this indulgence, this risk. He trusted Viktor. He trusted him to support him, to raise him up in this sport, make him better – so why not let him lift him physically, too? “You can’t raise me above your head though,” he added.

Viktor raised an eyebrow. Obviously he hadn’t expected more conditions, especially considering he had suggested pair skating, not dance.

“Alright,” he said, after a moment. “We’ll start with something easy and straightforward.”

Yuri wasn’t sure if he liked the sound of that ‘start with’ but he let it slide.

“We’ll do it stationary for now,” Viktor explained. “I’ll support you by the legs, okay?”

“Thighs?” Yuri asked and Viktor nodded. “Sure, okay.” Yuri could feel his nerves flutter in the heartbeat in his throat. He knew he was going to be okay, but he also knew he hadn’t attempted anything like this in years. “I’ll lean back a little, I guess. I don’t think I’ll be able to do a full layback though.” He might have the flexibility, but even if he did, he was too afraid of making them both topple over and collide with the ice.

A glint of light from Viktor’s eyes. “We’ll see about that.”

“We should have done this off the ice first...” Yuri’s hands were growing sweaty under his gloves.

Viktor stretched out his hands again; inviting and reassuring. “I can be steady as a rock if I need to.”

Yuri grimaced but didn’t protest. Instead he fidgeted a little in front of Viktor, wondering which way he should stand.

“Shouldn’t I have at least _some_ momentum for you to lift me?”

Viktor looked downright insulted at that. He put both his hands on Yuri’s hips. “I could carry you twice around this rink,” he said, seriously.

His hands were warm, almost hot, burning through the fabric of Yuri’s shirt.

“I don’t… doubt that,” Yuri mumbled, flustered. “I just don’t know if you could lift me while we’re at a standstill.”

Viktor looked at him for a moment. “Are you ready to try?”

For a few seconds, Yuri said nothing, trying to get his breathing and his heartbeat under control. Then he nodded. “Yes.”

And Viktor lifted him. Almost effortless, as if Yuri weighed nothing. Sure, Yuri could feel the muscles straining in his arms, the little puff of Viktor’s exhale against his collarbone, but there was a smile on his face and his fingertips seemed light against the back of Yuri’s thighs.

He was perfectly still. They both were.

Yuri blinked down at Viktor and Viktor stared up at him.

“See,” he said. “No problem.”

Yuri broke into a grin. Then he stretched his arms to the side and slightly tipped his head back, curving his spine, leaning back towards the ice. Viktor’s grip on his legs was steady.

A few seconds passed. Half a minute. A full minute.

They didn’t have a lot of points of contact – only Viktor’s arms around Yuri’s legs. Yuri knew his skates had to be pressed against Viktor’s legs, too – somewhere around his knees – but he couldn’t feel him there the way he could on his own legs.

He was so warm.

Yuri could feel Viktor’s arms starting to shake.

“Let me down,” he said, silently, and straightened back up. Viktor obliged without saying anything.

For a moment Yuri thought his own legs weren’t going to carry him anymore, but then he found his balance on his skates. His legs felt cold now, only the echoes of a burn left where Viktor had been touching him just moments before.

“We did it,” he said and skated a lazy circle around Viktor, too nervous to stay still any more. He felt giddy, and he wasn’t even sure why. This was nothing new.

It was just something new for him and Viktor.

Viktor caught his hand again, leading Yuri around him for another turn and Yuri went easily, smiling all the way.

“Do you want to try again?” Viktor asked, flexing his fingers and Yuri nodded. He reciprocated the gesture, the pressure, almost as if on instinct. He wanted to be sure that Viktor knew that he was one hundred percent on board with this.

“Yes,” he said.

“I think we can do it in movement this time,” Viktor said.

Yuri swallowed but he nodded anyway. He knew they could do this. He trusted Viktor.

Viktor released his hand.

  


For a minute they only skated in synchronized movements, repeating the footwork they had practiced earlier. Then Viktor took Yuri’s hand again and pulled him closer. Yuri was afraid he was going to crash into him and send them both flying but instead Viktor hooked his arms under his thighs and lifted him up.

Yuri leaned back almost immediately while they glided over the ice, while they spun.

It felt like flying. He had never felt so free in his life, and the ice usually granted him a vastness of freedom.

With the cold rush of air in his ears and at his fingertips, the heat of Viktor’s arms was even more pronounced.

It felt like he was in the air forever, but it still ended too early.

For a second Yuri couldn’t say anything after Viktor had put him down again. Then he sucked in a deep breath.

“That was amazing.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Viktor smiled.

Viktor hadn’t let go of him entirely. Instead his hands had traveled from Yuri’s thighs to his waist, now resting there as if it was exactly where they belonged. And maybe it was.

“You were beautiful up there,” Viktor said and again Yuri could feel the blush creeping up his cheeks. “You are beautiful. This is the look I want to see on you. A carefree smile.”

And then he bent down and pressed a short kiss to Yuri’s lips.

  


Yuri never wanted to get off the ice if it meant he would get to keep Viktor’s fire.


End file.
